Crying Fowl: Major Grocers Stumble in Promoting Antibiotic Stewardship in Retail Chicken
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MAY 2017 IP: 17-03-A ISSUE PAPER CRYING FOWL: MAJOR GROCERS STUMBLE IN PROMOTING ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP IN RETAIL CHICKEN SUMMARY Across the country, scientists, physicians, and public health advocates have been sounding the alarm over rising rates of antibiotic resistance, one of the major public health crises of our time. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year at least 23,000 people in the United States lose their lives to antibiotic-resistant infections and an additional two million are sickened. Prominent health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree that overuse of antibiotics in poultry and livestock production, in addition to human medicine, is a major contributor to antibiotic resistance. While the federal government, including the U.S. Food available to consumers concerned about routine antibiotic and Drug Administration (FDA), has been slow to curb the use: routine use of antibiotics, consumers have been driving n U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Certified Organic; change by voting with their wallets. Consumers visit supermarkets 1.5 times per week, exerting enormous n chicken labeled “raised without antibiotics”(RWA), a purchasing power over what these stores carry. So, when which is sometimes USDA process verified; and consumers buy more meat and poultry raised without the n unlabeled chicken from producers that have committed routine use of antibiotics, and demand these better meat to or have already transitioned away from routine use, choices, they exert powerful influence on the marketplace. while allowing use when animals are sick. And it is in the chicken industry that we have seen the NRDC considers all three options representative of fastest response to consumer demand. responsible antibiotic practices or a commitment to A significant number of chicken producers and fast-food implement such practices. chains have made public commitments in the past two Grocery retailers are the middlemen who bring meat years, pledging to phase out the routine use of antibiotics products to consumers. Their product selections grant that are important for human medicine (“medically consumer access to meats raised without routine antibiotic important antibiotics”) in raising chickens. Thanks to these use. Retailers can either spur improved antibiotic commitments, several types of chicken products are now stewardship by producers or reward continued routine use. a “Raised without antibiotics” (RWA) is used as a broad term that includes other labels, such as “No antibiotics ever” and No antibiotics added,” indicating that antibiotics were not administered to chickens. b Both USDA Certified Organic and USDA process-verified RWA chicken brands reflect antibiotic use claims that have been verified by an independent third party. The authors are grateful for the helpful comments of Laura Rogers (Antibiotic Resistance Action Center), Steve Roach (Food Animal Concerns Trust), Kathy Lawrence (School Food Focus) and Vanessa Zajfen (School Food Focus) as well as from Miriam Rotkin-Ellman (NRDC) and Valerie Baron (NRDC). For more information, please contact: www.nrdc.org Jonathan Kaplan, [email protected] www.facebook.com/nrdc.org Carmen Cordova, [email protected] www.twitter.com/NRDC We evaluated the five largest grocery retailers in North n While most grocery stores surveyed offered RWA America on their offerings of chicken brands from producers or USDA Certified Organic chicken, they often with responsible antibiotic practices and their public lacked signage to direct consumers to these commitments around antibiotic use. We also examined their offerings. The absence of signage makes it less likely signage and informational materials directing consumers’ that consumers will find the products or even notice attention to chicken raised without the routine use of that they are there. Publix stood out for its signage at antibiotics, as well as the extent to which suppliers’ claims every surveyed location. regarding antibiotic use were verified by an independent n The proportion of brand choices with verified third party.b Specifically, the retailers we surveyed were claims about antibiotic use varied widely from Costco, Publix, Walmart, Albertsons/Safeway, and Kroger. grocer to grocer (20 to 50 percent). Third-party Overall, unfortunately, we found that all five retailers certification of responsible antibiotic use claims provides have failed to provide leadership in promoting responsible independent assurance of claimed practices and builds antibiotic practices in their supply chains. consumer confidence. Generally, grocers with the most brand choices had a smaller fraction of brand choices with verified responsible antibiotic use claims. For KEY FINDINGS example, Publix offered a total of 17 different brand n All five grocery retailers offered at least one brand choices in the two cities we surveyed, but only three choice reflective of responsible antibiotic use brand choices had third-party-verified antibiotic use practices, and most offered several such choices. claims. At the same time, Costco generally offered two In many cases, these offerings reflected the majority of brand choices at every store location, including one the brand choices for the locations and period covered by option whose antibiotic use claims were verified. the survey. For instance, 90 percent of the brand choices at the Walmart stores we surveyed were from producers RECOMMENDATIONS that report using fewer antibiotics. While this is a step in the right direction, retailers are still falling short in To promote more responsible use of antibiotics in their significant ways. chicken supply chains, retailers should: n None of the major retailers had publicly committed n Develop responsible antibiotic use policies and to eliminating routine antibiotic use in their chicken communicate those policies to consumers. While some retailers have policies, supply chains. n Improve signage to draw consumers’ attention to chicken they are not strong enough. None of the five retailers products that make claims about responsible antibiotic we surveyed had an antibiotics policy for their chicken use, i.e., USDA Certified Organic or RWA products. (or other meat) that includes a time-bound commitment to phase out routine use of antibiotics in their chicken n Encourage producers to work with the USDA to develop supply chains. While responsibly raised chicken brands new designations that reflect responsible practices but were available on their shelves, the lack of corporate are not USDA Certified Organic or USDA process-verified policies means that many retailers may be selling larger RWA. volumes of chicken raised with routine antibiotic use. The n Work with producers to push for third-party certification lack of an explicit commitment also means retailers may or verification of responsible antibiotic use claims. not be providing brand choices that reflect responsible antibiotic practices at all locations, and they may not be stocking them all the time. Page 2 CRYING FOWL: MAJOR GROCERS STUMBLE IN PROMOTING ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP IN RETAIL CHICKEN NRDC DRAFT Not all chickens are raised equally Of all the antibiotics sold in the United States that are Reducing antibiotic use is critical to stemming the tide of important for human medicine, approximately 70 percent resistance. Consumers are increasingly asking for meat are sold for poultry and livestock use.¹ These antibiotics raised without the routine use of antibiotics, from both fast- are similar to or the same as the antibiotics that patients food chains and grocery retailers.8 U.S. consumers trek to receive from their doctors, and their overuse in animal the supermarket 1.5 times per week, on average.⁹ When they agriculture as well as in human medicine has led to hard- start demanding and buying more meat and poultry raised to-treat, antibiotic-resistant infections that threaten without the routine use of antibiotics, consumers exert a human health. Many of these drugs are approved to help powerful influence on the marketplace. Major producers animals survive the stressful, overcrowded, or unsanitary from the chicken industry have led the transition away from living conditions found in industrial livestock operations.² the routine use of antibiotics, probably because chickens When antibiotics are given to chickens, pigs, and cattle have shorter life cycles than other meat animals (and likely routinely, the drugs kill off susceptible bacteria, leaving the fewer chances to contract infections).10,11,12 Large chicken resistant bacteria to survive, multiply, and spread.³ These producers such as Perdue, Tyson, and Foster Farms have antibiotic-resistant bacteria can then travel into the general all committed to phasing out the routine use of medically population via poultry and livestock products, farmworkers, important antibiotics (see Table A4). Similarly, a growing or contaminated air, water, and soil.⁴ Antibiotic-resistant number of major fast-food restaurant chains have pledged bacteria can also pass on their resistance to other species of to purchase chicken raised without the use of medically bacteria that can infect people and make us sick, resulting important antibiotics, including McDonalds, Subway, in longer illnesses and more expensive treatments.⁵ Also, Wendy’s, and Chick-fil-A.13 These commitments demonstrate as antibiotics begin to fail, patients undergoing procedures that